The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Wednesday overhauled the Ram temple’s religious oversight structure, giving Ayodhya’s seers a central role in supervising worship, rituals, festivals, and priest training, even as it deferred key administrative appointments, including the selection of a chief executive officer and three vacant trustee posts.

The trust also decided to revive and make permanent a training institute for priests, in a move officials said was aimed at strengthening the temple’s religious framework while responding to concerns from local monastic bodies that they had been sidelined.

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A new order for sacred stewardship

The new nine-member dharmik committee will be chaired by trust treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri and will include five saints from Ayodhya and four members associated with the trust.

The Ayodhya-based members include Mahant Kamal Nayan Das of Maniram Das Chhawani, Swami Ramanand Das of Ram Katha Kunj, Swami Rajkumar Das of Ramvallabh Kunj, Swami Mithilesh Nandini Sharan of Hanumat Niwas Mandir, and Mahant Dinendra Das of the Nirmohi Akhara.

The remaining members are Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati, Yug Purush Swami Parmanand, Pejawar Math seer Vishwaprasanna Tirtha Swami, and Giri himself.

Ritual, discipline and a measured hand

Announcing the restructuring, Giri said the temple’s religious administration was being entrusted to Ayodhya’s saints and that the shrine must continue to function according to the Vedic Ramanandi system of worship.

He said the committee’s responsibilities would include ensuring that daily worship follows that tradition, settling dates for annual festivals when calendar disputes arise, supervising special Vedic rituals and yajnas, overseeing priest training and discipline, and maintaining regular dialogue with Ayodhya’s monasteries, temples, saints, and gurukuls.

The trust also plans to revive priest training through a permanent school in Ayodhya and to monitor whether temple priests follow prescribed rituals, dress codes, and standards of conduct.

Who will untangle the administrative knots?

The wider trust meeting also dealt with the ongoing donation-counting controversy.

Members expressed dissatisfaction with the State Bank of India’s role in the process, approved the creation of an official spokesperson post for the trust for the first time, and rejected suggestions that the dispute had weakened public faith or pilgrim footfall.

No individual has been appointed as spokesperson yet. The trust said the role is meant to improve communication with the media and address misinformation.

The CEO selection has been pushed back after the panel examining applications sought more time to review the large number of candidates, while the trust’s next meeting is scheduled for September 2.

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FAQs

Q1: Why did the Ram temple trust form a new religious committee?

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust reconstituted the committee to oversee temple rituals, festivals, priest training and other religious matters with greater involvement of Ayodhya’s seers.

Q2: Has the Ram temple trust appointed a new CEO?

No, the trust has deferred the appointment of a new CEO, saying more time is needed to review the applications.